Refrigerator safe



July 6, 1937. z, A, DYER 2,086,019

REFRIGERATOR SAFE Filed March 11, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet /6 E6. 1.

x x a Patented July 6, 1937 UNITED STATES- REFRIGERATOR SAFE Zeb A. Dyer, Los 'Angeles, Calif., assignor of onethird to Ruric Calif.

R. Templetn,- Los Angeles,

Application March 11, 1937, Serial No. "130,235

3 Claims.

home, when the occupants are away for any period of time, is to find some place wherevaluables such as jewelry, silverware and valuable papers may be placed, where these may not be pilfered by'burglars or destroyed in the event of fire. While there are safes on the market for installation in homes for providing this protection, these safes are too costly for the average home owner, with the result thatv the average home does not have a safe place in which to leave valuables. i

It is an object of my invention to .provide a relatively inexpensive home safe for the purpose pointed out hereinabove.

One afpthe features of safes at present on the market which renders these expensive is the necessity for fire-proofing these to protect the valuables contained therein in case the building in' which the safe is installed burns.

It is therefore another object of my invention to provide a home safe, the cost of which is decreased by the fact that it utilizes the insulating effect of heat resisting material normally provided in the refrigerator in the home.

While in my copending application, Serial No 130,234 filed herewith, I have shown a safe which 4s built integrally with a refrigerator when the latter is manufactured, there are a large number of refrigerators at present in use and which will remain in use for a number of years and which, of course, are not equipped with safes.

5 It is a further object of my present invention, therefore, to provide a small safe for use in homes, which is adapted to be attached to a refrigerator so as to accomplish one or more of "the objects above noted. v

The manner in which the above objects are accomplished as well as further objects and advantages of the present invention, will be made manifest in' the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in 5 which:

'Fig. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a preferred embodiment of my present invention as attached to the inner face of the door of a re- 50 frigerator.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the refrigerator v Fig, 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of the 55 exterior ofa refrigerator with the safe of my invention attached to the outside of a. wall of, said refrigerator.

Fig. fl: is a side elevational view of the refrigerator shown in Fig. 1' with the door closed and the upper portion of the refrigerator broken away to show the walls and door thereof in section.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan view of a refrigerator wall plate'with slots produced therein suitable for mounting the safe of my invention on said wall. I I 10 Fig. 6 is a view of the same wallas shown in Fig. 5 with attaching bolts located in said slots and with the safe of my invention disposed to receive the shanks of said bolts through apertures provided in the safe. 15

Fig. '7 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on line l--'I of Fig. 6 and after washers and nuts have been applied to said boltsto securesaid safe to said wall.

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the safe of my invention attached to a refrigerator in a corner thereof. y

Referring specifically to the drawings, I have shown therein a refrigerator III with which my invention is adapted'to be embodied. This re--' frigerator includes side walls H, a rear wall l2, 2. top wall' I3, and a floor [4, these uniting to form a refrigerating chamber l5 having a front opening l6, which is adapted to be closed by a refrigerator door II. The walls ll, 12, I3, the floor l4, and the door I! each are constructed with inner-and outer sheet metal face plates and the space between these plates contains heat resistant material 20. The .face plates of the refrigerator elements .thus form an outer sheet metal shell 2! and an inner sheet metal 'shell 22. The door I] has an inner sheet metal faceplate 23 whichis a part of the shell 22 and upon which I prefer to mount the detachable home type of safe 24 of my invention. The construction of this safe and the manner of its attaching are as follows:

The safe 24 preferably comprises a rectangular box 30 having side walls 3|, a bottom 32, and adoor 33, Divotallymountedbetweenthe walls 3| and adapted to be retained in closed position by a lock 35, which is preferably a key look but may, if desired, be a combination lock. Provided in the safe bottom 32 are a. series of holes 40, which are preferably spaced as shown in Fig.

6. In applying the safe 24 tothe door I! of therefrigerator III, the face plate 23 is provided with a series of slots 4|, which have narrow portions 42 which are located in, exactly the same relation to each other as the holes 40- in the safe 24 so that when the safe 24 is placed over the plate 23 the holes 40 may be brought into exact alignment with the narrow portions 42 of the slots 4|. The slots 4| also have enlarged portions 43 and the insulating material 20 is removed behind the slots- 4| so that theheads 48 of. bolts 49 may, together with a washer 59, be.

extended through the enlarged portions 43 of the slots 4| and then these bolts may be moved so that the shanks of the latter lie in the narrow portions 42 of the slots 4i. are thus disposed, the safe 24 is moved against the plate so that the shanks of these bolts extend through the holes 40 as shown in Fig. 6. Washers and nuts 56 are now applied to the bolts 49 so as to rigidly secure the safe 24 to the face plate 23. By virtue of the. fact that the large portions 43 of the slots 4| are disposed in opposite directions from the narrow portions 42 of these slots, it is impossible to shift the safe 24 in a direction parallel with the face of the plate 23 without shearing the bolts 49'. The latter are preferably made of very tough material such as nickel steel so as to make this shearing practically impossible, at least by any force which a burglar might be able to bring into play. It is also clear that when the door 33 of the safe 24 is closed, access is denied to the bolts 49 so that it is practically impossible to remove the 'safe 24 from the door I? unless the door was entirely destroyed as by the use of an acetylene torch.

As shown in Fig. 4 the closing of the door l1 causes the safe 24 to swing into the free space which is disposed alongside a refrigerating unit .50 of the refrigerator l0.

While it is preferable to mount the safe 24 of my invention on an inner face of one of the walls of the refrigerator Ill, such as on the inner face of the door so that the safe will be protected in case of fire by the heat resistant walls of the refrigerator, it might in some cases be preferable to mount the safe 24 on an outer face of one of the refrigerator walls as shown in Fig. 3, in which case the mounting could be accomplished in exactly the same manner as above described for mounting the safe on'the inner face of the door l'l.

In some instances it may be preferable to mount the safe 24 of my invention within the body of the refrigerator ID, in which case this can be done as shown in Fig. 8. The mounting of the safe 24 in an internal corner of the refrigerator may be accomplished by the use of When the bolts 49.

slots and bolts similar to the slots 4| and bolts 49 and by which the safe 24 may be attached to the inside face plates of both the rear wall I! and the floor 14 of the refrigerator.

From the above description it is seen that I have provided a relatively small safe suitable for use in thefhome for containing and guarding valuables such as silverware, jewelry, valuable papers, and the like,'which cannot be carried off I by a burglar without the use of special wrecking equipment not practical to be carried by burglars, and which is suitable for location in and attachment to an ordinary residence type of refrigerator so as to be protected by the heat resisting walls of. the latter in case the house should catch on fire.

What I claim is:

1. In a combined refrigerator and safe deposit box, the combination of: a refrigerator adapted for installation as a unit, said refrigerator having relatively thick heat-resistant walls, a relatively small and substantially burglar-proof safe deposit box having a door and lock means for governing the opening and closing of the latter; assembly means for rigidly assembling said safe deposit box upon and uniting it with an inner face of one of the. aforesaid walls of said re frigerator to substantially prevent the removal from said refrigerator of said safe deposit box while the latter is closed without destroying a substantial portion of said refrigerator.

e 2. In a combined refrigerator and safe deposit box, the combination of: a refrigerator adapted for installation as a unit, said refrigerator having relatively thick heat-resistant walls, the latter having an inside steel lining; a relatively small and substantially burglar-proof safe deposit box having a door and lock means for governing the opening and closing of the latter; assembly means for rigidly assembling said safe deposit box upon and uniting it with the aforesaid steel lining of said refrigerator to substantially prevent the removal from said refrigerator of said safe deposit box while the latter is closed without destroying a substantial portion of said refrigerator.

3. The combination as in claim 1, in which said securing means comprises a series of bolts adapted to be assembled in place while said safe deposit box is open and inaccessible in order to effect the removal of said safe deposit box while the latter is closed.

ZEB A. DYER. 

